1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an oblique vapor deposition substrate, a liquid crystal device, a method for manufacturing liquid crystal device, and a projection display device.
2. Related Art
An oblique vapor deposition method for depositing a vapor deposition material on a substrate at an oblique angle is commonly used to form an inorganic alignment layer of a liquid crystal device. The crystals of the vapor deposition material grow at an oblique angle on the substrate surface to form columnar crystalline bodies. The liquid crystal molecules are oriented in the growth direction of the crystalline bodies. If the average orientation of long axes of liquid crystal molecules which are aligned in the plane parallel to the substrate is taken as an easy axis, the easy axis is controlled by the growth direction of crystalline bodies, that is, the direction of the vapor deposition material incident on the substrate (vapor deposition direction).
The vapor deposition material is radially emitted from a vapor deposition source. As a result, the growth directions of crystalline bodies in a substrate plane may vary. Usually, a plurality of liquid crystal devices is simultaneously manufactured using a large oblique vapor deposition substrate which includes a plurality of pixel sections. In this configuration, when an inorganic alignment layer is formed on the oblique vapor deposition substrate, the growth directions of crystalline bodies in the plane of oblique vapor deposition substrate may vary, therefore the easy axes of the respective pixel sections and thus the liquid crystal devices are different.
JP-A-2008-3405 discloses a plurality of pixel sections arranged in an arc shape so that the longitudinal direction of each pixel section is slightly different from that of the adjacent pixel section. With this configuration, even if distributions of vapor deposition directions (variations of easy axes) are generated in the plane of oblique vapor deposition substrate, an easy axis of generally intended direction is obtained in each pixel section separated from the oblique vapor deposition substrate.
According to JP-A-2008-3405, the plurality of pixel sections is irregularly arranged on the oblique vapor deposition substrate. This causes a problem as follows. Usually, when a plurality of panel areas is formed on the oblique vapor deposition substrate, the pixel sections are arranged in a matrix of intersected straight lines of two directions. Therefore, the oblique vapor deposition substrate can be easily cut by forming straight scribe (cutting) lines along the arrangement direction of the pixel sections. However, when a plurality of pixel sections is irregularly arranged as described in JP-A-2008-3405, straight scribe lines can not be formed on the substrate, thereby requiring a special cutting process, leading to a complicated cutting operation.